Aug. 11, 2010
COMMENTARY: Is Ice Really Melting Under The Pressure Of Budgets?
By Tom Stark
I came across this article from Newsmax.com dated August 9, 2010, and it was enough to make me wretch (see link below).
It describes a memo issued on June 29 by an Assistant Secretary John Morton (head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]) that directed ICE to begin making deportations and detentions based on a new policy that focuses solely on criminal and national security risks. In effect, the memo suggests that there are not resources available with which to deport more than the 4% of the illegals in the country per year (estimated at about 400,000). This, in itself, should demonstrate with great clarity the extent of the problem we face with illegal immigration and the urgent need to secure the borders without further delays.
However, the thrust that gored me through and through was the point at which the article disclosed that the budget for ICE comes to about $2,550,000,000.00 (yeah, that’s 2+ Billion dollars). Simple math takes us on an unbelievable journey through the bizarre realities of government waste and ineptitude. Based on the budgeted amount and the number of illegals deported per year, we see that each one cost the taxpayers, on average, $6,375.00. Now I understand that this is the gross budget and includes administrative and overhead costs for maintenance of equipment and facilities, but even at that, I find the value we are receiving to be sub-par to be gentle about it. Perhaps we need to stop flying them home and send them on loaded busses instead?
Most disturbing, though, is the excuse being used by the Obama Administration for this limited enforcement posture – budget limitations – when they are spending us into oblivion in ways that serve no useful purpose other than to secure jobs for their union buddies, assume more control of private industry, or grow the government payroll with jobs whose primary function lately seems to be to see how many ways the administration can do end runs around our Constitution.
Every right-thinking American should be outraged by this total failure to perform one of the limited number of responsibilities the Obama Administration SHOULD be performing – to keep us safe from invasions (regardless of the form or the violence level) – while doing everything imaginable to undermine our economic recovery and our individual freedoms guaranteed to us by our Constitution.
2010 MUST be the year we retake control of Congress which has the power to put the brakes on the spending simply by de-funding the onerous initiatives passed to date and enacting serious and real budget cuts that deeply peel back the layers of bureaucracy and regulation that stifle American business and economic interests.
2012 MUST be the year that a clear message is sent to Republicans and Democrats alike that leadership ability will be rated based on the degree to which Constitutional limits on federal power are controlled and restrained, regardless of who becomes their figurehead assigned to carry their flags in the Presidential Campaign.
Once we achieve these two goals, then maybe we can start reducing the goodies being proffered to and accepted by the states (including West Virginia) on a daily basis – to which they seem more and more addicted – and start them on the road to self-sufficiency while redirecting individual citizens to take a hard look at being personally responsible for their own well-being and learning to live within their means (and the government’s).
Referenced article: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Resources--ICE--Tracking--Illegals/2010/08/09/id/366944?s=al&promo_code=A75F-1
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COMMENTARY: Is Ice Really Melting Under The Pressure Of Budgets?
By Tom Stark
I came across this article from Newsmax.com dated August 9, 2010, and it was enough to make me wretch (see link below).
It describes a memo issued on June 29 by an Assistant Secretary John Morton (head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]) that directed ICE to begin making deportations and detentions based on a new policy that focuses solely on criminal and national security risks. In effect, the memo suggests that there are not resources available with which to deport more than the 4% of the illegals in the country per year (estimated at about 400,000). This, in itself, should demonstrate with great clarity the extent of the problem we face with illegal immigration and the urgent need to secure the borders without further delays.
However, the thrust that gored me through and through was the point at which the article disclosed that the budget for ICE comes to about $2,550,000,000.00 (yeah, that’s 2+ Billion dollars). Simple math takes us on an unbelievable journey through the bizarre realities of government waste and ineptitude. Based on the budgeted amount and the number of illegals deported per year, we see that each one cost the taxpayers, on average, $6,375.00. Now I understand that this is the gross budget and includes administrative and overhead costs for maintenance of equipment and facilities, but even at that, I find the value we are receiving to be sub-par to be gentle about it. Perhaps we need to stop flying them home and send them on loaded busses instead?
Most disturbing, though, is the excuse being used by the Obama Administration for this limited enforcement posture – budget limitations – when they are spending us into oblivion in ways that serve no useful purpose other than to secure jobs for their union buddies, assume more control of private industry, or grow the government payroll with jobs whose primary function lately seems to be to see how many ways the administration can do end runs around our Constitution.
Every right-thinking American should be outraged by this total failure to perform one of the limited number of responsibilities the Obama Administration SHOULD be performing – to keep us safe from invasions (regardless of the form or the violence level) – while doing everything imaginable to undermine our economic recovery and our individual freedoms guaranteed to us by our Constitution.
2010 MUST be the year we retake control of Congress which has the power to put the brakes on the spending simply by de-funding the onerous initiatives passed to date and enacting serious and real budget cuts that deeply peel back the layers of bureaucracy and regulation that stifle American business and economic interests.
2012 MUST be the year that a clear message is sent to Republicans and Democrats alike that leadership ability will be rated based on the degree to which Constitutional limits on federal power are controlled and restrained, regardless of who becomes their figurehead assigned to carry their flags in the Presidential Campaign.
Once we achieve these two goals, then maybe we can start reducing the goodies being proffered to and accepted by the states (including West Virginia) on a daily basis – to which they seem more and more addicted – and start them on the road to self-sufficiency while redirecting individual citizens to take a hard look at being personally responsible for their own well-being and learning to live within their means (and the government’s).
Referenced article: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Resources--ICE--Tracking--Illegals/2010/08/09/id/366944?s=al&promo_code=A75F-1
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